Maharashtra bypolls: Shiv Sena drops vulgar ‘tawaif bomb’ on EC to attack BJP

Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut compared the EC with a "tawaif" (mistress) to target its friend-cum-enemy the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Mumbai, May 30: The Election Commission (EC) is facing a lot of flak these days, especially after various political parties raised allegations of large-scale Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctioning during the Monday's bypolls in 10 states in the country.

The bypolls for four Lok Sabha and nine Assembly seats were marred by instances of alleged malfunctioning of EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs).

Thus on Wednesday, the EC held repolling in 73 booths in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Nagaland after widespread failures of EVMs were reported in these states. The results of the bypolls will be declared on Thursday.

Although the EC said reports of "large-scale" failure of EVMs were "exaggerated projection of reality", the poll body is facing severe pressure to come out clean on regular malfunctioning of the machines in almost all elections held in the last one year.

Along with the pressure to come out clean on the EVM row, the EC on Wednesday got another shock when the Shiv Sena attacked the poll body with a vulgar comment.

Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut compared the EC with a "tawaif" (mistress) to target its friend-cum-enemy the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"Our people (Shiv Sena workers) caught BJP workers red-handed distributing money during the Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll, but the EC did not take any action. If similar inaction is shown by the EC all over India, then it means the EC is acting like a tawaif (mistress) of a political party," Raut was quoted as saying by ANI.

Of late, the Shiv Sena has been regularly attacking the BJP despite the party running an alliance government with the saffron party in Maharashtra. For the Palghar bypoll, the Shiv Sena has put up a candidate against the BJP.

This is for the first time the Shiv Sena has put up a candidate against the BJP in any Lok Sabha election or bypoll. The bypoll for Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra was also held.